CDC Fest 2026 Recap Video | Contemporary Dance Choreography Festival Orlando

Inside CDC Fest 2026: Our Full Festival Recap Video

Three days. Thirteen pieces. One stage full of dancers pushing new contemporary work from the studio floor to opening night. This summer, Kyle Loftus Studios had the privilege of capturing all of it — and the full CDC Fest 2026 recap video is finally here.

Press play, turn it up, and watch a year of choreography come to life in a few minutes.

What Is CDC Dance Fest?

The CDC Dance Festival — short for the Contemporary Dance Choreography Festival — is an annual Orlando gathering built entirely around new contemporary dance, led by Artistic Director McLane Timmerman Gonzalez. It brings dancers, choreographers, and creatives together from across the country and around the world.

At its heart is one intense challenge: in just 72 hours, dancers learn, master, and perform original choreography live on stage. Along the way they take master classes from world-class guest choreographers, build community, grow their networks, and gain the kind of real-world performance experience that shapes professional artists. It's part audition, part master-class intensive, and part live premiere.

The 2026 edition ran July 24–26 across two Orlando venues: Orlando Family Stage and Orlando Ballet School. The weekend followed the arc every dance artist knows in their bones — rehearsals and refinement, a full day of auditions and master classes, then tech and a closing show where all the work finally meets the lights.

The Work

What makes CDC different from a recital or a competition is the emphasis on choreography — original voices making something that didn't exist before. The 2026 program spanned solos, duets, and full ensemble pieces, with world-class guest choreographers leading master classes and dancers arriving from across the country and around the world to build and premiere new work.

The energy across the weekend was exactly what you hope for at a festival like this: dramatic, intentional, and alive. The best moments weren't only the polished finals — they were the in-between ones. A choreographer walking a dancer through a phrase one more time. The quiet focus of a tech run. The exhale after a piece lands. That's the story we set out to tell.

How We Captured It

Covering a three-day, multi-venue festival is a production challenge, and we built our approach around one goal — never miss the moment, and always make it look cinematic. A full crew captured in parallel while our editor cut on-site in real time, so a rough assembly was taking shape while the festival was still happening. We shot in 4K at 60fps as our baseline, reached for 120fps slow motion where a moment deserved to breathe, and used a gimbal and wide-angle lens for smooth, follow-the-dancer movement that supports the choreography instead of competing with it. Stage-level camera work, intimate handheld, and aerial drone footage during rehearsals gave the edit range — wide enough to feel the whole ensemble, close enough to feel one dancer's intention. We also captured interviews with the artists to weave real voices and purpose into the recap. A rush cut was even delivered same-day to screen before the closing performances, then refined — with licensed music, sound design, motion graphics, and a rich color grade — into the polished film you're watching now.

Why Great Video Matters for Dance

Dance is ephemeral — a piece exists for a few minutes and then it's gone. Video is how that work travels: how a choreographer pitches their next commission, how a festival fills next year's auditions, how a dancer builds a reel, and how a company reaches an audience that couldn't be in the room. A well-made dance festival recap video isn't a souvenir. It's a marketing asset, an archive, and a calling card all at once.

Work With Kyle Loftus Studios

Kyle Loftus Studios is a video production studio that specializes in bringing movement to the screen. If you run an event, festival, studio, or company — or you're a choreographer or dancer who needs your work captured properly — we'd love to talk.

We produce event and festival videos, contemporary dance and choreography festival videography, choreographer and dance company videos, cinematic dance music videos, and high-energy promotional and submission ads built to drive registrations, ticket sales, and submissions. Based in Orlando and available to travel.

Let's make something that moves. Email hello@kyleloftusstudios.com to start a project.